Coinbase Makes History as it Prepares to Become the First Crypto Company to Have its Stock, COIN, Included in the S&P 500

Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) is set to become the first crypto company to have its stock included in the S&P 500 stock index. The move will see Discover Financial (NYSE:DFS) replaced in the index by May 19.

According to an S&P Global press release, the change follows the pending acquisition of Discover by Capital One (NYSE:COH), whose stock is already part of the S&P 500. To avoid a double-counting of Capital One’s stock, DFS will be removed from the S&P 500 and subsequently replaced by another stock.

The release further noted that the S&P 500 will begin the new weighting of the index’s constituents to reflect the transaction. The index is expected to include Coinbase in place of DFS, beginning Monday, May 19.

The S&P 500 tracks the performance of stocks of the 500 largest U.S. companies by market capitalization. The index is a widely used benchmark for the U.S. stock market. It is also used by many investors to create index funds and ETFs.

The index includes stocks of top companies such as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), AT&T (NYSE:T), BNY Mellon (NYSE:BNY), Citigroup (NYSE:C), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), and eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY).

As of March 31, the S&P 500’s aggregated market cap was $49.8 trillion.

Since it is a market-cap-weighted index, bigger firms like Microsoft and Apple carry more weight, which could be in double digits. However, those at the bottom have less than 1% weightings. Nonetheless, making it to the S&P 500 is a significant milestone, regardless of the company’s weighting.

The inclusion is expected to have an immediate market impact on Coinbase’s stock and increase the involvement of major U.S. and global institutions in the crypto economy.

NFTs and Web3 projects are also expected to benefit from Coinbase’s entry into the S&P 500. Notably, ETFs and index funds tracking the S&P 500 would be indirectly purchasing Coinbase’s shares.

At press time, COIN was trading at $207.22, up nearly 8%. Its market cap was $52.78 billion in the hours leading up to press time.

Coinbase has been a hot stock this year, with the shares more than tripling in 2023. The stock is up over 230% year-to-date.

Coinbase is a leading cryptocurrency exchange platform in the United States, offering a wide range of digital asset products and services to retail and institutional customers. The company provides a platform for buying, selling, storing, and managing cryptocurrencies, as well as a professional-grade exchange for institutional traders.

Coinbase also offers a suite of defi and Web3 products and services, including Coinbase Earn, which allows users to learn about cryptocurrencies and earn rewards, and Coinbase Card, a Visa credit card that provides cashback rewards on everyday purchases.

The company is committed to operating with the highest levels of transparency and compliance. Coinbase is publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol COIN.

Other crypto proponents, like Strategy’s executive chairman Michael Saylor, congratulated Coinbase on its inclusion in the S&P 500 index. The chairman of the Bitcoin-stacking company referred to COIN’s inclusion in the index as a major milestone for BTC and the exchange.

Recall that Strategy’s share, MSTR, was considered a major candidate for the S&P 500 index last year. However, Strategy did not meet some of the index’s criteria.

A crucial criterion requires potential constituents to have been profitable in the previous calendar year and the most recently concluded quarter. In May, Strategy announced a net loss of $4.2 billion in Q1 2025, failing to satisfy a major criterion for inclusion in the index.